(a) In three ways, explain how each of the following factors has affected world population: (i) advanced technology; (ii) improved medical care (b) Highligh...

Answer Details

(a) How the following factors have affected world population

(i) Advanced technology

• Increased food production: mechanised farming, improved seeds and fertilisers produce more food, supporting a larger population.
• Improved transport and communication: makes it easier to move food, medicine and people, reducing deaths from famine and easing migration/settlement.
• Industrial growth and employment: factories and cities attract people, encouraging population concentration and, through better living standards, survival.

(ii) Improved medical care

• Lower death rate: immunisation, drugs and better hospitals cure diseases that once killed many people.
• Reduced infant and maternal mortality: more babies and mothers survive childbirth, so more people live to reproduce.
• Longer life expectancy: control of epidemics and better sanitation allow people to live longer, increasing total population.

(b) Four factors accounting for the high density of population in Java

• Fertile volcanic soils: weathered lava gives rich soils that support intensive farming (especially rice), feeding a large population.
• Favourable equatorial climate: high temperatures and heavy, reliable rainfall allow continuous cultivation all year round.
• Intensive wet-rice (padi) cultivation: a highly productive food crop that supports many people per unit area.
• Historical, administrative and commercial development: long settlement, good transport, ports and the growth of large cities such as Jakarta attract and hold a dense population.